Monday, February 29, 2016

Those Oscar dresses.....


There I was, 20,000 feet in the air, and no parachute.... but she does wonders with it.



Cher would be so proud....



Simply delightful....


And the winner is... Charlize!

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Watch free movies.....


If you are using a 30-inch TV as a monitor, these look very nice in full screen. If you click on "Browse" you can choose a category to search for movies in it, and there are quite a few. You should check this out.













When you empty the Screenshots folder in Windows...

Here's how to reset the counter to "01" again....


In your Search window, type regedit to open the Registry Editor (as above) and then navigate to H-Key Current User > Software > Microsoft > Windows > Current Version > Explorer and then in the right-hand side, look for the entry for the Dword named ScreenshotIndex, and right-click on that to bring up the little drop-down menu, then click on the first word Modify to show another little menu where you can change the value to 01 (hexadecimal). When you've done that, and the value shown in the right-hand side for it shows 01, you can close the Registry Editor, because you're done. And that's all there is to it. Your next screenshot will be numbered 01.
 

Saturday, February 27, 2016

Tonight's weather...


Examples of free digital TV



These are coming from a small over-the-air antenna that I made years ago for my stereo receiver, and it now receives seven channels of digital TV as well. So today's Question Everything is: "Who needs cable?" I didn't get this sharp a picture on the cable. And this is 100% my own setup.

Friday, February 26, 2016

It's spring at last in the coastal rainforest


The first blooms are here in the neighbor's garden.

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Tax time again, YeeHaw!!

And filing the return on line beats hell out of snail mail. All I have to do now is wait patiently for Canada Revenue Agency to send my refund.

But I'm definitely not impressed with TurboTax Canada. I answered the opening questionnaire, and they recommended the Basic program. Then I discovered it couldn't handle charitable donations, so I had to upgrade to a better version, at twice the price. And then twice during my filling in the blanks, the damned thing died on me, and I had to begin from the beginning again. I don't care for their "bait and switch" technique, or having it die on the vine unexpectedly.

I eventually got through it, and filed my return with the CRA, but I wasn't happy with that TurboTax program. 

Another Theme for Linux Mint or Windows








It's named Chakras, and you can add these to your Backgrounds folder in Linux Mint or your Themes in Windows.

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Still learning Linux Mint.....


Today I discovered the way to turn on slideshows for the desktop wallpaper, and now I see where it is even easier than it is in Windows, especially Windows 10, which is confusing when compared to previous ones.


You can choose any image folder on your computer and add it to the choices, or you can remove any just as easily, using the plus and minus signs at the bottom of the left column. It's actually more convenient than Microsoft's version.


Tuesday, February 23, 2016

SuperAntiSpyware at work.....




Don't let the name hold you back. This is the best program I know for finding and removing adware and tracking cookies.


And just like they say, these folks protect you from things antivirus doesn't, like malware trying to get into your system. If you have the Premium version of this, it will automatically block incoming malware before it gets onto your system. These folks believe an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It works.


Monday, February 22, 2016

More "Oldest Living Blogger"....

That was my first "handle" on the first community blogging site I joined here years ago. It's now defunct because the latest owners haven't been maintaining it like it requires.


I made this latest set of images for Windows Themes, in case my grandchildren Emily, Logan, and Zakk might like them. And if they have any requests, for other ones, just let me know. 

I like Facebook, and most of the people who comment on it, but I'm really getting tired of all those idiotic statements being made by Republicans on there who are pretending to run for election. Many of them have been bought by the Koch brothers or the big corporations like Lockheed Martin, which has its tentacles in at least twelve federal government departments, and contributes to the re-election campaigns of Congressmen, Senators and especially those on the Defense Committee and the Senate Appropriations Committee, because they know which side their bread is buttered on. 

And as we're seeing, government by the paid minions of billionaires hasn't been working out worth a damn. I wish I could convince our American neighbors to try harder to take back their government from those special interests which are now in control. Democracy isn't really a democracy if it is just a puppet show with billionaires pulling the strings from behind the curtain.

And the NRA and its skillful manipulators have to go too. They have carefully and purposely taken the Second Amendment, and bent it all out shape to the point where it is practically unrecognizable. It was never intended to authorize just any damned fool to run around loose with an assault weapon or any other. When that Second Amendment was written, the newly-formed nation needed a means of protecting itself against a possible invasion by British or French forces who in those days were fighting over possession of the whole of North America. 

The technology of the times only provided guns which were single-shot muzzle loaders, which required time to reload. So the government authorized everyone to have one, so that they could muster a sufficient number in case of attack, and would have enough so that some could be shooting while others were busy reloading. They could not foresee a situation like today, because the first repeating weapon wasn't invented until 44 years later when Samuel Colt patented his famous six-shooter revolver. Americans need to do more homework on their Constitution and its Bill of Rights, and stop believing the NRA.
 

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Another do-it-yourself Windows Theme set







A little more "This and That"....

Here's Mount Seymour on the eastern horizon, no relation to Jane I don't think. It's one of our three local ski hills, and far from the best. The best would be Cypress in West Vancouver, which, on two mountains, mimics Whistler/Blackcomb, but smaller. However, at the moment, it does have a deeper base than Whistler/Blackcomb, and it's only twenty minutes from home.


Just checking the Insider Hub page, and there's not a lot of action on there now, compared to a year ago, while we were frantically trying to get Win-10 together and ready for its big debut.


I have to confess I've been neglecting this lately, because there hasn't been nearly as much action since Win-10 went public, and I've tended to lose interest. I'm still not entirely convinced we ought to be trying to make Windows into something which is "all things for all people".  And I really wish Satya and the boys in the back room would make a deal to use the same system for updates as Linux Mint uses. I love the way Linux Mint's updates come in packages that are automatically handled by its Manager, and I also like the little icon in the Panel (Taskbar to you) showing if you're up to date. We could all benefit by putting these two systems together. Another thing I really like is the way it provides a virtual operating system on its installation setup, so that we can familiarize ourselves with it as it is actually installing itself. Linux Mint has a lot of nice features.


Here's that Update Manager in action, after I've clicked on the little shield icon in the Panel below it. Sometimes, I wish I knew how to write code. I'd love to try putting these two systems together. I think we'd have a real winner. I wish I could convince the folks in Redmond to try this.


And Linux Mint has wallpapers that are just as attractive as Windows, and we can also use our own, of course.